Nicolae Cinteză, (ed: note: cinteză - chaffinch) the head of the oversight department of the Romanian National Bank (BNR), will appear, on December 9th, before the subcommission in charge of investigating if the activity of CEC Bank was in compliance with the rules of procedure stipulated in the bank's bylaws and regulations. He will be heard on the same day as Radu Graţian Gheţea, the president of CEC Bank, and as Daniel Chiţoiu, the Minister of Public Finance, as decided by the members of the Commission of budget, finance, banking activity and equity market of the Senate.

On Monday the Senate decided to set up an subcommission as part of the aforementioned commission. The decision comes on the back of the row concerning the granting by the bank of a loan of 1 million Euros to Ioana Băsescu, the oldest daughter of the president, in order to acquire a plot of land in the county of Călăraşi.

Yesterday's reunion of the budget and finance commission which was supposed to set up, among other things, the schedule of the hearings in the case of CEC Bank, has begun under the shadow of uncertainty.

Even though at first, six of the commission's members were present in the room, namely president Cosmin Nicula (PSD), vice-president Iulian Dumitrescu (PNL), secretary Leonardo Badea (PSD), Viorel Arcaş (PSD), Akos Mora (PNL) and Marius Bălu (PDL), their number quickly fell below the threshold needed to meet the quorum. Marius Bălu left the room after just a few minutes, saying that he would come back only after the discussions on the CEC issue are over, in line with the statement of the president of the PDL, Vasile Blaga, who said that the senators of the PDL will not attend the works of the commission.

Shortly after its departure, the number of members present grew back to six, after the return of the other democrat liberal who is a member of the commissi